What a perfect place for a pirate adventure! The hugely successful Pirates of the Caribbean movies were filmed all over the Caribbean with some of the more memorable scenes inspired by or filmed on the beautiful, pristine island of Dominica. Discover Dominica here in this short video, then see if you can recognise any of the film locations in the images below!

Between October and February each year large plankton blooms close to the coast of Djibouti draw these beautiful gentle giants close enough for tourist trips and driving adventures. Although enormous (often growing to an incredible 12 m!) whale sharks are docile fish and sometimes allow swimmers to hitch a ride!

Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE) is the actualisation of so much that is great in Western Sydney. Described as a creative conduit between Western Sydney and the world, ICE brings to life the qualities of Appreciative Inquiry I wrote about here…..https://caravanserai230.wordpress.com/word-from-the-west/ and demonstrates the ways in which we can benefit from sharing our stories and experiences.

“Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE) works at the intersection of arts, culture, technology and community. ICE projects engage diverse communities, build capacity in digital media and arts practice, and tell the stories of an extraordinary place, Western Sydney – the most diverse region in Australia.” (From the website) To learn more about ICE and read about the amazing projects and people visit http://ice.org.au/what-is-ice/

In December 2008 we visited Denmark on holiday with my brother and his wife who were living in Belgium at the time. It was a wonderful and much needed holiday and was made all the better because we were in Copenhagen before Christmas – exploring the city and the Tivoli Gardens with family, celebrating Christmas with a glogg or two and shopping for very un-Australian Christmas gifts!

When we got back to Sydney my husband revealed to me that on the way home from the gardens one night (after a few gloggs!) he had asked a statue of Hans Christian Andersen for a little baby (something we had been waiting very patiently for!) Unbeknownst to him, I had bought a beautiful copy of Anderson’s fairy tales for him for Christmas so he could read them to the baby when/if it came along.

Our little girl was born the next year, as sweet as any fairy tale character of Anderson’s imagination. Needless to say, we love Denmark, Copenhagen and Hans Christian Andersen!

Doris Lessing, who has died aged 94, was not impressed when she got the news she’d won the Nobel Prize in 2007, as the very entertaining video below will show you. Unable to travel to Sweden for the awards ceremony, her Nobel lecture was delivered in Stockholm by Nicholas Pearson, her publisher in the UK; while she was presented with the award at a special event in London, where her publisher, HarperCollins, announced the gift of 10,000 books to Zimbabwe in her honour.

We’d expect a Nobel Laureate in Literature to have something impressive to say. Nonetheless, Lessing’s Nobel lecture is a stunner. It is reproduced below, videos and text may all be found on the Nobel website, here. To hear the great author speak in person, watch this interview given one year later, to Professor John Mullen.

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Having reached the end of the C section – from Cambodia to Czech republic, I went back to review all the amazing things I have discovered…only to discover that I missed Cambodia altogether! So here it is – last instead of first but no less loved!

Cambodia has two rice crops each year, a monsoon-season and a dry-season crop. The majority of the rice is produced in the monsoon crop over a 6 month period. The dry-season crop is smaller, and takes 3 months from planting to harvest.

In addition to these two regular crops, floating rice is grown in April and May in the areas around the Tonle Sap, which floods and expands its banks in September or early October. Before the waters rise, the seed is spread on the ground without any preparation of the soil, and the floating rice is harvested nine months later. It has a low yield, probably less than half of the typical crop, but it can be grown inexpensively on land for which there is no other use.

The Golden Lane (Zlatá ulička) is on the Eastern side of Prague Castle, near the outer wall. The small, colourful houses were originally constructed in the 16th Century for the castle guards of King Rudolph II. In those times the street was known as Archery Lane. It was later renamed ‘Golden Lane’ for the goldsmiths who moved into the houses in the 17th century.

Legend has it that alchemists attempted to turn metal into gold here, but in fact the alchemists lived elsewhere in the castle. It was the goldsmiths who gave the street its captivating name.

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I spent a gorgeous day with my two little ones; running around in the sunshine, exploring Old Parliament House in Parramatta Park and eating fairy bread. Coffee and treats at Lachlan’s café is the perfect way to begin your day in Parramatta Park. Here is a photo from under the shade of the very old grape vine…

I am a freelance Photographer born and raised in the Southeast. I have uprooted my life in Macon Georgia for a new life as an unlikely cowgirl in love with a handsome cowboy in Wyoming. I hope you enjoy my photo journal on life, love, and the spirit of Wyoming.